Jumping the Shark: When brilliance goes bad

I just learned of the expression "Jumping the Shark" while talking to my brother in law and discussing the demise and slow death of the TV show ER. I used to love the show, but I stopped watching a couple of years ago. I couldn't take any more staff heart attacks, deaths by patients gone postal, severed arms. It seemed like all cast members had slept together--there were no more affairs to be had. Each had at least one freak accident that put him/her back into the ER, usually after a gruelling 48-hr shift. Apparently you can try to leave the Cook County ER, but you'll never really escape. NBC won't let you.

I told my brother in law that I stopped watching the show.

"Yeah," he said. "It really jumped the shark."

"It what?"

He went on to explain what this rather brilliant expression meant: when a program hits a point of dwindling energy, and nothing will revive it. There are no more original plot lines, characters have lost their coolness, or the show starts to rely on gimmicks to keep the audience engaged. Yet the show remains on the air and becomes a pop-cultural joke.

The expression is based on an episode from the TV show Happy Days, when it was nearing the end of its run and things were getting a little, well, kooky. Fonzie is water skiing somewhere (this was a commonly used tactic in the 70s and early 80s when shows were getting over the hill--take everyone to Hawaii and include a near-death experience). And Fonzie, fading stud that he was, jumped over a shark. The motorcycle has become passe, I suppose, so writers moved to subterranean antagonists.

Once the origins of this expression were explained to me I Googled the term, and up popped a Web site dedicated to Jumping the Shark moments.The site offers a list of shows with a number of reputed "Shark" moments--ER is included, of course, as are other long-living TV shows, like The Simpsons, Friends, even The Sopranos.

Apparently Shark moments are quite common: Browsers can search by categories of Shark moments by category:

• Same Character, Different Actor (Bewitched beDamned)
• Birth | Death (There IS no replacing John Ritter, dig?)
• Ted McGinley (I didn't realize that Ted McGinley, the Varsity stud that joined the Happy Days cast in its twilight years, had become an omen of bad TV. But a list of failed programs backs up the site's contention that he is the patron saint of shark jumping. )
• Puberty (In some cases I wish some actors remained in puberty--Anthony Michael Hall made a franchise out of if)
• Singing (Why was last resort in the 70s/80s always to turn things into a Variety Show? The Bradys cut an album, the Flinstone kids cut an album, Charlene and Kimberly on Diffrent Strokes--and to think Kimberly was supposed to be better than Janet Jackson!...)
• Live! (Canned laughter somehow is much more fake when it's live)
• I Do (Nothing is more boring than two people who are happily married)
• They Did It (Some programs lose steam post-orgasm)
• The Movie (Pay $10 for what you would normally see on Thursday nights for free)
• Moving
• Special Guest Star (No more Whoopie!)
• A Very Special... (Three words that say, "Do not watch this!")
• New Kid In Town (and he's got a bowl cut and smokes dope)
• Hair Care (Brady perms; Felicity)
• Exit...Stage Left (Urkel? Bubbye)
• Graduation (I know how to keep 90210 relevant--get all of them accepted into the SAME college!)
• Color (It worked in The Wizard of Oz, but not on TV)
• Never Jumped

It occurred to me that there are lots of things that Jump the Shark, not just TV shows. My list follows.

Movie sequels jump the shark: The first time I saw Nightmare on Elm Street I couldn't sleep afterward. The film freaked. Me. Out. Somewhere around its fifth or sixth iteration the Freddy films transmogrified into comedies. How is Freddy gonna kill someone this time? His one liners before each death became as memorable and kitschy as Arnold's Schwartenegger's "I'll be BOCK."

Freddy wasn't the only flagging franchise. The Friday the 13th series began to disintegrate as well. I remember thinking he was nearing the end of horror relevance back in high school, when I saw a F/13 movie at the local theater; Jason trapped someone in a sleeping bag, beat it against a tree, and the audience howled with laughter. When Freddy and Jason teamed up in one of their more recent disasters I thought, stick a fork in both of these psychos--they're done.

Brands jump the shark: I've touched upon this before, when I've condemned unappetizing food spinoffs like blue ketchup and products that come in bite-sized, semi-bitesized, and glutton-sized versions of themselves. I saw an ad for Giant-sized M&Ms and thought the world might end. You wanna give me more of a good thing? Pack more M&Ms in those skimpy packages! But don't make them bigger. (Incidentally, I thought I would explain why this was a bad idea, but somebody already has, analyzing the chocolate to peanut ratio of the newly sized peanut M&Ms. You could argue the demise of OREOs when double stuff and colors came out, but I'm not that much of a purist.

Child actors jump the shark somewhere around the point when what they say isn't cute anymore, just annoying. Witness fading cuteness on Full House, The Cosby Show, Family Ties (the last-minute kid with conceived to breathe life into a show--another common Shark tactic).

Reality TV jumps the shark or becomes a parody of itself. Witness the drunken sex on The Real World, the increasingly ridiculous lines that accompany eliminating someone from competition ("Amanda, pack your knives..."), and the insults that fly during Reunion episodes.

Relationships jump the shark. If you've sensed a lost spark in your marriage/relationship, and then your partner suddenly wants to go to Hawaii, don't go. This could signal the beginning of your post season.

Looks jump the shark. Those few pounds between getting toned and getting anorexic? Those few injections between looking younger and looking plastic? Those few nip/tucks between looking tighter and looking like your body fat is being held by a giant pony tail holder? You get the gist.

Blogs that jump the shark: I won't go there. However, I will be moderating a panel at BlogHer called Next Level Naked that addresses this somewhat. What happens when you got no mo' of what people read you fo'? Or worse, what happens if you're no longer feeling your Inner Fonzie. You're done with the leather and want to go into reruns, or write about something entirely new. Do you keep going the same route and serve up shark, or do you re-emerge as a new character?

I'd love to hear some stories about Blogotomies.

jumping the shark pop culture television

Comments

[DUST!N]

I had this dream the other night with Jennifer Garner in it.

It's not what you think.

I asked if she thought her show Alias jumped the shark after season 2. In 3 more seasons, it never regained what it was before SD6 was dismantled (guess you had to have been there).

As far as blogs go, I fear jumping the shark every Friday. Though I'm not sure that I can, since I'm no A-lister and my audience is fairly niche.

Still, I reach back into the tank each week and wonder if I'll pull anything out.

I can't say I remember another blog "jumping the shark." They seem to just fade in relevance and eventually drop off my RSS subscription.

[Mike]

Two words: Evil Clones.

[Joy]

I agree with Dustin. In my short time as a blogger, I have noticed a few blogs just fade away...quiety shut down. I'm always worried about running dry of things to write about. I know you always tell me..."That won't happen Mom," but still, I worry.

[Steve Sherlock]

Jory,
It depends on what you are here for... if it is a chore, it will run its course sooner or later, shark or no shark.

If it is pure fun, I suspect there is some radar-like energy shield (currently undetectable by humans) that will keep sharks away because there is too much fun going on.

[The Bargain Queen]

...but celebrities never jump the shark - they jump the couch instead!

[JoeBro]

I'll never forget that episode of Full House where one of the Olsen twins learned to shoot heroin from Dave Coulier.

[troy]

How about... President Bush's arrogance jumps the shark.

[Don The Idea Guy]

Jumping The Brand Shark -- great new twist on Ries and Trouts problems with killing Positioning through 'line-extensions'.

I'd keep my eye out for any brand that brings on Ted McGinley as their spokesperson! ;)
~DON

[Michelle]

I only just learned of this term recently as well and couldn't believe that there was a term to which a website or websites was dedicated to that I hadn't even heard of! I like the way you have taken the shark thinking to a whole new level. :-)